Madison - Health care is the inescapable issue in the tightly contested race to determine Wisconsin's next U.S. senator.

The issue has been at the heart of the political careers of former Gov. Tommy Thompson and U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, and in this campaign the two candidates have clashed on questions of health care costs and coverage.

Thompson, a Republican, wants to repeal the health care law known as "Obamacare." Baldwin, a Democrat, voted for it and has advocated going further. The two also have opposing ideas about the future of Medicare, and they blame each other for contributing to the financial difficulties of that health care program for seniors.

Their disparate views were on display in their first debate and will likely be hammered home again in their second debate on Oct. 18.

"My opponent has been in Congress for 14 years. Has she ever introduced any legislation to fix the (Medicare) problem? No . . . Nobody solves the problem. I will. That's why I'm running," Thompson said during the Sept. 28 debate.

But the Baldwin campaign looks back on some of those same years and sees a different story because Thompson oversaw Medicare as health and human services secretary under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. Citing congressional findings, the Baldwin campaign said that during the years Thompson led the agency, the projections for when Medicare would become insolvent were moved up to 2020 from 2029.

"The fact is that when he ran Medicare for four years in the Bush administration, it moved closer to going broke," Baldwin spokesman John Kraus said.

Nor is it just the two candidates' takes on their records on health care that separate them - the two also differ sharply on the country's health care future.

Thompson wants to remake Medicare so people have the option of staying in the traditional program or receiving federal money to help pay for private insurance. Baldwin wants to preserve Medicare as it currently stands, though she has not said how she would pay to do that.

Thompson wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the health care law often called Obamacare. Baldwin voted for the law and in the past advocated having the government pay for all health care costs.

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Health care at center of Baldwin-Thompson Senate race